Have You Thought About Your Influence?

Once a month, I attend a Christian-based lecture group called MOPS.
The organization invites a different speaker each month to talk about a topic applicable especially to the mothers of preschoolers (hence the name, MOPS).

Since last weekend was Valentines weekend (if there is such a thing!), the topic for this month's meeting was marriage. In their fabulous lecture, this couple in their late 40s(?) talked a great deal about influence you need to have in your marraige. Influence? Isn't that a bad thing?

When I think of the word, influence, in a relationships, I immediately imagine a woman whispering into a man's ear--almost a manipulative gesture. I always thought that everyone knows the best for themselves, and things are better left alone, for the most part. But they quoted the definition of influence as a "character exhaling." What a beautiful phrase. Character Exhaling. Your essense becoming a part of someone else.

Have you thought about your influence in your home? On scale of 1 to 5, how pure is your motive? On scale of 1 to 5, how positive is your influence and how does it dictate the mood of your household? When I master, one day, to conciously and carefully have only the positive influence into my husbund, instead of having influence over him, maybe I can finally become the type of spouce that is truly complimantary to him.